Lee Bounces Back, Advances in State Tourney
LEE, Mass. -- Payton Simmons and Gianna Carlino each scored a pair of goals Monday to lead the Lee High girls soccer team to a 6-0 win over New Mission in the preliminary round of the Division 5 State Tournament.
Ella Simone finished with a goal and an assist and Faith Newton scored a goal as 24th-seeded Lee improved to 15-4 and earned a date on Wednesday with No. 9 Rising Tide Charter in Plymouth.
Lee showed no signs of rust after not having played since Oct. 24 in the Western Massachusetts Class D semi-finals.
In fact, it came out like a team that used the layoff wisely to recuperate after losing leading scorer Jenna Simone to injury in the Western Mass loss at Hopkins Academy.
"We've got some new players in some new positions because we've had our goalie out, too," Lee coach Gina Guachione said. "Maddie [Kotek] broke her wrist after Hopkins and, with Jenna being out, we had to regroup, had to move people around.
"But we pulled it together."
The Wildcats pulled ahead quickly with a goal by ninth-grader Carlino in the seventh minute of play. She cashed in an assist from Hannah McDonough to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead right off the bat.
They kept the pressure on throughout the first half, outshooting the visiting Titans, 13-0, in the first 40 minutes.
Simmons converted an assist from Carlino in the 12th minute, and Carlino scored her second with an assist from Simmons 13 minutes later.
Ninth-grader Ella Simone scored an unassisted goal in traffic from the middle of the 18 eight minutes into the second half to make it 4-0 and put the game out of reach.
"I've got a lot of freshmen and our seventh grader, Lily [Hassmer] is phenomenal," Guachione said. "She keeps sending those crosses off. We put her in center mid a few times, and she did an amazing job.
"And our seniors, like Payton, had a great game, and Ella. They all came back together. It's hard when you take one of your center mids and she's yelling from the sideline, not on the field."
New Mission's best chances to get on the scoreboard came in a three-minute stretch midway through the second half.
Speedy striker Tatiana Restrepo broke up the middle on a run in the 21st minute and fired a shot on Lee backup keeper Ava Lucy, who made the save and then denied Restrepo on the rebound.
Three minutes later, Restrepo had another opportunity on a run up the middle that Lucy (four saves) erased.
"It's great to see her come out like that on Day 2," Guachione said of Lucy. "She just came back from an ear infection, so she was out for a little bit, too. She's only been in goal for two days right now, so we're happy about that."
Newton scored an unassisted goal with 14 minutes, 4 seconds left to play, and Simmons scored her second four minutes later to cap the scoring.
New Mission keeper Dasanee Mendoca finished with 19 saves as Lee built a 25-4 advantage in shots on goal.